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Mike

On Strategy: The strategy is delivery. Again.

Last night I delivered a speech – without any slides for a change – at the Institute for Government in London (it’s embedded below, or you can watch it on YouTube). The opportunity came from a meeting some months ago with Peter Riddell and his team, so I used Martin Donnelly’s speech earlier in the […] Read more – ‘On policy and delivery’.

Today I was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours list. It was made in recognition of the digital transformation of public services, and for working to develop football in the borough of Hackney. While a lovely recognition, it is, of course, largely symbolic. I am delighted to accept it on behalf of […] Read more – ‘On honours’.

Mike Bracken summarises progress with Government’s digital strategy Head of the Government Digital Service (GDS) Mike Bracken, gave Society for IT Management (Socitm) delegates a quick gallop through of his team’s success on the day that the first year’s progress report on the government’s digital strategy was published. He also called on Socitm to be more […] Read more – ‘Digital 1 year on’.

Inflexible contracts with an incumbent supplier have been blamed for the decision to suspend work on one of the forerunner exemplar digital by default services, the Government Digital Service has revealed. It announced last week that the criminal record check exemplar from the Disclosure and Barring Service would be shelved as “due to the nature […] Read more – ‘Passports may become exemplar digital service’.

It’s just been announced that Martha Lane Fox is stepping down from her role as the UK’s Digital Champion. Martha’s been an inspiration to us here at GDS, and the tremendous impact she’s had right across the civil service is worthy of someone who called for a ‘revolution’. If you’re a regular reader of this blog then […] Read more – ‘Thankyou Martha’.

Originally posted on www.npr.org by Elise Hu – October 23rd 2013 When he read about the technical failures plaguing HealthCare.gov, Mike Bracken said it felt like a real-life version of the movie Groundhog Day. During the past decade, the government in the United Kingdom faced a string of public, embarrassing and costly IT failures. Finally, a monster technical fiasco […] Read more – ‘U.K. Official Urges U.S. Government To Adopt A Digital Core’.

by liammaxwelll on 15/04/2013 In the Open Standards Principles we said that we’d set up an Open Standards Board to help us to decide which open standards to use in government IT. Now that we’ve published the first 8 challenges on the Standards Hub, it’s time to set up the Board and start making those decisions. The Board will focus […] Read more – ‘The Open Standards Board’.

In 2011, early in my current role, I discussed with the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, the strategy I recommended we adopt for all things digital. The strategy was to be disarmingly simple: to deliver. Often, iteratively and repetitively. Read more – ‘On Strategy: The strategy is delivery. Again.’.

We are all shocked and saddened by the death of Aaron Swartz. Some of my colleagues at GDS were fortunate to have met him; others were involved in the many projects he worked on; all of us are in some way indebted to his legacy. As Sir Tim Berners-Lee said, ‘we have lost a mentor, […] Read more – ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants’.

(Click the above screen to watch the video) TECHCITYINSIDER100: The Government Digital Service is sweeping reform through the state’s digital output, after being told by the Cabinet Office to deliver world-class digital products that meet people’s needs. It’s an agenda that’s forcing a rethink from the user’s perspective. The service’s director Mike Bracken spoke to […] Read more – ‘Government lets users call its digital tune’.

The big news this week has been the transition of two central government departments and three agencies to GOV.UK. Following the release of GOV.UK last month, it’s the next step towards establishing a single domain for government. Huge congratulations to everyone involved for months of hard work, and special thanks to all the people in departments and […] Read more – ‘This week at GDS’.

Wednesday 17 October 2012Author: Michael Cross [original post here] From this morning, every visitor to the www.direct.gov.uk and www.businesslink.gov.uk has been directed to www.gov.uk. Under the promise to be ‘simpler, clearer, faster’ the site is billed as the new online home of government services and information. The Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Services says GOV.uk is […] Read more – ‘One-stop gov mark IV: GOV.uk goes live’.

Website overhaul will see more transactions, such as driving test bookings and tax payments, move online Charles Arthur, technology editor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 November 2012 16.15 GMT [original post here] In 2011 about 150m phone calls made to government services could have been avoided if the online service were better. Photograph: Getty A sweeping redesign […] Read more – ‘Government services go ‘digital by default’ to save almost £3bn’.

One digital space for government: GOV.uk Government has today hit the switch to turn off Directgov and Businesslink, replacing them both with GOV.uk. Government’s executive director for digital, Mike Bracken, talks to UKAtv’s Helen Olsen about the focus on user experience and efficiency that led to the development of a new digital platform for government, […] Read more – ‘Mike Bracken, talks to UKAtv’s Helen Olsen about Gov.uk’.

On Wednesday October 17th 2012, our new digital service www.gov.uk moved out of public beta development to replace the two main government websites, Directgov and Business Link. It is the first major, full platform release from the Government Digital Service. This release heralds a new approach to digital delivery of public services in the UK. […] Read more – ‘Why GOV.UK matters: A platform for a digital Government’.

by Stefany Barker [original story here] In September import•io attended Wall Street Journal’s TechCafe talks with Mike Bracken, director of the Government Digital Service unit (GDS) in the Cabinet Office, and Ben Hammersley, David Cameron’s Tech City ambassador and author of 64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then, to gain intimate insight into […] Read more – ‘Mike Bracken and the UK Government’s Digital Strategy’.

A year ago, the White House launched We the People, a new platform that allows anyone to create or sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. In just one year’s time, the platform has generated 3.4 million signatures by 2.8 million users. And what’s even more exciting is that […] Read more – ‘Happy Birthday, We The People!’.

By John K. Higgins. E-Commerce Times, 14 September 2012. “… GSA has just launched a tool to help consumers identify legitimate federal government social media sites. Now the public can use GSA’s “social media registry” to validate that an account is really managed by the government and is not an impostor. Read the full story […] Read more – ‘New Tool Verifies Authenticity of Gov’t Social Media Sites’.

We’ve seen an amazing growth of interest in open data within the UK and worldwide over the past half-dozen years, but in my opinion there are still some challenges ahead if we want to get to a situation in which open data is being used to its full potential, by government and businesses and individuals. […] Read more – ‘Four Challenges for Open Data’.

By Ben Rooney – Featured in The Wall Street Journal – 19.09.12 At last week’s WSJ Tech Cafe held near London’s “Silicon Roundabout,” venture capitalist Saul Klein of Index Ventures said that the Internet was coming of age and should be able to tackle big things like health care, education, transport—or government. Described by one […] Read more – ‘Wall Street Journal // The U.K.’s Digital Plan to Innovate Government’.

By Ben Rooney How do you go about transforming the U.K.’s civil service to deliver digital services? By recruiting the best people you can. Mike Bracken is the man responsible for delivering all of the U.K. government’s digital services. U.K. Tech City Ambassador Ben Hammersely describes him as a “god” in his role as executive director of digital […] Read more – ‘Wall Street Journal // Delivering Government 2.0’.

Mike Bracken, executive director of the Government Digital Service, talked to Computer Weekly about what UK public services could learn from Estonia’s open source model and why a dose of its IT leaders’ humility wouldn’t go amiss in Whitehall. Estonia has one of the most advanced online public service offerings in the world and is held […] Read more – ‘Computer Weekly // GDS head Mike Bracken on Estonia’s digital services’.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude today launched the Civil Service Reform Plan and we were glad to welcome him and Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service, to GDS this morning in advance of the announcement. You can see them chatting to GDS staff Alice Newton and Jordan Hatch in the video below. […] Read more – ‘Digital a key component for Civil Service Reform Plan’.

“Digital is not another channel, it is the delivery choice for this generation” - Francis Maude, Minister for Cabinet Office said at the Intellect World-Class Public Services Conference today, 11 June 2012 This morning I had a chance to speak at the Intellect World-Class Public Services Conference and to listen to the keynote speech delivered by the Minister […] Read more – ‘Francis Maude speaks at Intellect Public Services Conference 2012’.

As with most of our releases and work at the Government Digital Service, we release our work early for review and comment. Recently the Identity Assurance Programme Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group, a working group of the main board, issued the following principles for discussion. Although not yet ratified by the full board, these principles […] Read more – ‘Identity and privacy principles’.

This week saw one of the key set pieces in the Government’s annual calendar – the Budget. All of Government is affected and we’re no different here in Government Digital Service. In this budget the government set out its ambition to make the UK the technology hub of Europe, supporting technological innovation and helping the […] Read more – ‘Budget Blog’.

Today the cross-Government Identity Assurance programme sanctioned DWP to publish a tender to procure Identity services for all of Government. The notice appears here in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), and marks the start of the formal process to create a market of identity services for access to digital public services. Commercially, it means […] Read more – ‘Identity: One small step for all of Government’.

The beta of GOV.UK is now live. Back in late summer last year, I wrote that ‘we exist to make public services digital by default, and we are relentlessly focused on user needs.’ About 10 minutes ago we released the next step on our journey toward a single domain for government – and it has been driven entirely by […] Read more – ‘This is why we are here’.

I really enjoyed being able to get to UKGovCamp 2012 last Friday where I had a chance to outline some of our thinking around GOV.UK. My reference to Chatham House Rules got an interesting reaction – I only meant in relation to further circulation of the slide deck – not to what I was actually saying. I […] Read more – ‘My Reflections on UKGovCamp 2012’.

Monday was a big day for the Identity Assurance Programme. The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, explained to a packed Technology Strategy Board event why a federated identity assurance model is essential for the ‘digital by default’ initiative and how important this digital policy is, not just for public services but for the wider economy. […] Read more – ‘Establishing trust in digital services’.

We are hiring. And we want more world-class digital talent in Government. It’s been a pleasant surprise to find outstanding digital talent across Government. From theTechnology in Business Fast Stream to the excellent work done to make technology procurement easier by John Collington and the Government Procurement Service, there is too much digital change occurring to list here. […] Read more – ‘The second lever’.

We exist to make public services digital by default, and we are relentlessly focused on user needs. At the moment, we are bringing together various strands of Government digital activity into one function in order to drive up quality and consistency of user experience. Please do take some time to review our projects. As the […] Read more – ‘Welcome to the Government Digital Service blog’.

By Duncan Geere The coalition has appointed Mike Bracken as executive director of digital in the cabinet office, following Martha Lane Fox’s review of Directgov. The post, which Wired.co.uk investigated thoroughly back in April, calls for a candidate to “change the model of government online publishing, by putting a new central team in Cabinet Office in control of the […] Read more – ‘Wired // Mike Bracken appointed as government’s director of digital’.

I am delighted to have accepted a new position. To give it the full title, I will take the post of Executive Director of Digital Efficiency and Reform Group, Cabinet Office. I will start in early July. I am really looking forward to meeting the team at the Government Digital Service. For someone with my longstanding […] Read more – ‘On becoming Executive Director of Digital in the Cabinet Office’.

So I’m leaving the Guardian. It’s a great organisation, and I will miss the people hugely. The building, culture and atmosphere all help, but the key to the place is the talent. It’s full of hugely talented people, and it’s the development team I will miss most of all. The digital strategy we pioneered at […] Read more – ‘Reflections on the Guardian’.

Mike Bracken, co-founder of MySociety and former Guardian executive, to be government’s Executive Director of Digital By Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor 11:00AM BST 20 May 2011 The Government has announced the appointment of its new head of all things digital. Mike Bracken will take up the post some have dubbed the ‘Twitter tsar’, having stood down […] Read more – ‘Telegraph // Government’s £142,000 ‘digital tsar’ named’.

The Guardian's new blog will cover some of the work we get up to on the technology side of guardian.co.ukWelcome to our new Developer Blog. We want to use this forum to talk about some of the work we get up to on the technology side of guardian.co.uk a... Read more – ‘Welcome to the Guardian Developer Blog’.

This is the first of two presentations on how we work digitally at the Guardian, from Mike Bracken who heads the digital development team here.This one is from WPP Stream, which is the annual gathering run by Sir Martin Sorrell's company, for WPP peopl... Read more – ‘Controlling innovation in media organisations’.

Filmed live at the launch of data.gov.uk, Tim Berners-Lee, Nigel Shadbolt, Richard Allan and Chris Taggart join the Guardian's technology director Mike Bracken to discuss the issues and opportunities surrounding the release of government dataMike Bracken Read more – ‘Video: Panel Discussion – the Power of Apps’.